Water softeners and plumbers

Myser

A water softener is not the same as a descaler.

The device that Jane Blackford is talking about is an electronic Descaler. A descaler can either be a fixed magnet which you plumb in or an electronic device where you wrap a coil of wire around the pipe to generate a magnetic field.

A water softener, on the other hand passes water through an ion exchange process. Calcium and magnesium ions are dissolved in sodium (salt). Softened water lathers more with soap and doesn't dry out skin as much i.e. feels softer. The benefits are that you don't have to use as much soap or detergent and is beneficial to those suffering from dry skin related problems such as Eczema.

Both a descaler and softener will prevent limescale build up.

anotherbaldrick

Kew2u wrote: »

There you go then, 'Baldrick. You pays your money you takes your chance. Seems that this part of the 'home service' isn't regulated but there are certainly rules regulating what's supposed to be safe when it comes to drinking water. What a minefield, no wonder ppl get confused.

Just to bring it home to you , some while back we had one of those Brita cartridge and jug water filters which soften and remove impurities from the water. For a while we used this filtered water to fill the electric kettle to make tea with because a friend said it tasted good for this . After a few weeks I looked in the kettle, originally it had been quite limed up, to my horror not only had the lime scale all gone but it had stripped the nickel plating off the the heating element and was probably dissolving that as well. We stopped doing that instantly.

Myser

If you are any good at soldering, you can build your own electronic descaler with components costing less than a few pounds:

http://www.moty22.co.uk/softener.php

http://www.extremecircuits.net/2010/06/pipe-descaler_8700.html

Alternatively, for a bit more more money, you can buy a kit:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/decalcifier-37766

http://www.magenta2000.co.uk/acatalog/PIC_Water_Descaler.html

The PIC™ Water Descaler by Magenta "sweeps the incoming water supply with variable-frequency electromagnetic signals".